Category: HR Technology

From Guesswork to Growth: How Data Analytics Can Supercharge Your SaaS Sales Hiring

Posted on by Nick Mann

Multiple boxes must be checked when doing SaaS sales hiring, from process efficiency to candidate quality to cultural fit to addressing potential bias. Otherwise, if even one box is left unchecked, it can lead to a host of issues like an overly lengthy hiring period, a poor candidate experience, and high turnover to name a few. Fortunately, we live in a day and age where data analytics can take much of the guesswork out of SaaS sales hiring and provide you with a steady stream of high-quality candidates — many of which will convert into loyal salespeople who crush their quotas.

Here are some specific ways data analytics can supercharge your SaaS sales hiring.

Identify Ideal Salesperson Qualities

Ask most hiring managers what the ideal salesperson looks like and they’ll probably say that they’re confident, resilient, a great communicator, and so on. But they likely don’t have a concrete salesperson profile based on completely objective data.

That’s where data analytics comes in. With this type of platform, you can analyze historical data to generate a crystal clear candidate profile, highlighting things like:

  • Education
  • Experience
  • Desire
  • Commitment
  • Personality
  • Behavior
  • Motivation
  • Responsibility

And we’re not just talking about a generalized, cookie-cutter profile that could apply to any company. Data analytics can be fully tailored to your unique sales environment so you know for certain which types of candidates are most likely to succeed working for you.

That way, you can target your SaaS sales hiring approach to filter through the candidate pool and zero in on the true superstars, which should result in A+ hires while lowering your turnover rate. This brings us to our next point.

Assign Scores to Candidates for Easy Comparison

Based on salesperson qualities that contribute to an ideal candidate, you can use data analytics to generate a numerical score for each person who applies. Here’s an example of what that can look like where you objectively rate a potential candidate based on core competencies so you can see where they rank in terms of qualities like desire and commitment.

In turn, you can instantly see how a candidate stacks up against others, while always maintaining consistency. So if it comes down to a few candidates that you’re interested in but aren’t sure who to choose, having a quantitative score like this can make your decision much easier.

Lower Your Hiring Costs By 3x

The SaaS sales industry has a notoriously high recruitment cost. According to SHRM, the average cost per hire across all industries as a whole is around $4,700. However, the typical cost for sales roles is much higher, often ranging from $7,000 to $8,000 for each salesperson.

One of the biggest reasons to use data analytics is that it can help you find the cream-of-the-crop sales candidates more quickly. From using applicant tracking systems to keyword filtering to behavioral assessments to gauge the odds of candidate success, this technology helps you move through the sales hiring process much more efficiently than doing so manually.

In turn, this can significantly lower hiring costs. To quantify, “Organizations that use analytics to improve the quality of a recruiting effort can reduce the cost per hire by three times,” explains RecruitingDaily. Even filling one position can save money, but when you look long-term, this can dramatically lower your sales hiring costs.

Create a Far Better Sales Candidate Experience

Because you’re able to create a more efficient, streamlined SaaS sales hiring process, this tends to result in a better candidate experience. This mainly stems from moving through the process quicker where you’re able to provide candidates with timely updates on their job application status.

That way they’re not left waiting, and you can get them from one round to the next without wasting their time with long, drawn-out sales recruiting. Besides that, you’re less likely to lose A+ candidates to competitors simply because it takes too long to hear back from your recruiting team. So it’s a win-win situation.

Eliminate Hiring Inefficiencies for Continual Improvement

No matter how good your SaaS sales hiring process is, there’s always room for improvement. But without the right data, there’s usually a fair amount of guesswork rather than data-driven decision-making.

The beauty of data analytics is that it continually provides you with objective data that helps you get better and better. Let’s say your hiring process looks something like this.

But somewhere along the way, quality candidates are dropping off and you’re missing out on golden opportunities. However, you’re not exactly sure where it’s happening.

Armed with data analytics, you could pinpoint precisely where the majority of candidates are being lost. For instance, maybe everything is going smoothly up until the phone interview. But poor communication or inefficient interviewing results in a high level of qualified candidates ditching your SaaS hiring process without moving on to the next round.

By having this information, you would know that the phone interview would be the area you would want to focus on improving. Once you’ve done that, you can eliminate a major friction point and create a more seamless hiring process.

Build Your SaaS Sales Dream Team Data Analytics

With so many variables that can affect SaaS sales recruiting success, it’s important to leave nothing to chance. Although there is no magic bullet that can guarantee a 100% success rate with every hire, data analytics has been proven to get legitimate results.

Using the right platform should help you predict which candidates are most likely to thrive in your sales environment, while simultaneously reducing your time-to-hire, lowering your hiring costs, improving the candidate experience, and more. For an overview of some of the top data analytics products on the market, I suggest reading this guide from People Managing People.

And if you’re looking for one of today’s leading hiring readiness assessments to level up your SaaS sales recruiting, check out HireDNA’s free assessment.

Use This Tool to Accelerate New SaaS Salesperson Ramp Time By 20-50%

Posted on by hiredna

I talk about SaaS sales rep onboarding a lot for one simple reason. It’s insanely important. 

Research has found that effective onboarding can increase your win rate by 15% and quota achievement by 14%. Further, leading SaaS companies with A+ onboarding practices experience 39% higher employee engagement, which not only translates into much better performance but a dramatically lower turnover rate. 

But there’s a problem.

Most SaaS Companies Have a Sluggish Ramp Time

One aspect of SaaS onboarding where many companies struggle is with speed. According to data involving 384 SaaS companies, ramp time takes an average of 4.5 months. However, that time is even longer for nearly 20% of companies, where it takes longer than seven months to get their salespeople completely dialed in. 

So, while reps are still learning the ropes, they’re not hitting their full potential, and deals are likely being lost. Fortunately, there’s a tool that can help you accelerate new SaaS salesperson ramp time by 20-50%. Here it is. 

Use Cutting-Edge Sales Onboarding Software

Like nearly every aspect of sales, there’s software available that’s specifically geared toward SaaS salesperson onboarding. Simply put, “sales onboarding software is a tool that helps sales managers onboard team members smoothly, develop courses and programs to train sales reps, and build their product knowledge.” 

By adding it to the mix, you can establish an extremely efficient process and structure that turns even the greenest salesperson into one that knows the ins and outs of your products and can confidently close deals. 

Common Features You’ll Find in Sales Onboarding Software

For starters, these platforms offer real-time access to interactive, personalized learning content. You can, for example, create learning videos, product demo examples, and quizzes that new hires can access 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

Whether they’re working in-house from your office or remotely on the other side of the planet, salespeople can get up-to-speed quickly, soaking up information in a structured, uniform way. 

Most platforms also offer guided selling systems that teach new salespeople how to close more deals faster, along with tips and tricks to maximize their potential. Saleshood is a sales onboarding software that includes sales playbooks, presentations, knowledge sharing, and win stories that show new reps firsthand how to thrive within your company and rapidly evolve their skills. 

And just like learning hubs, guided selling systems can be fully customized and modified over time to evolve along with your salesforce. 

Role-playing practices are another critical part of sales onboarding software and give new reps a framework for practicing their skills for calls, demos, and negotiations. This is huge for helping salespeople feel more comfortable and confident once they’re actually in the thick of things, and they should be ready for whatever is thrown at them. To quantify, reps that properly practice these skills increase their sales by more than 75%, says sales onboarding platform, Lessonly. 

Finally, you’ll usually find some type of analytics built into this type of software. Sales enablement and readiness platform, Brainshark, for instance, allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your training program as reps enter the field. With their software, you can “visualize the impact of training programs by tracking course data alongside sales KPIs.”

This is super helpful because it offers objective insights on which specific elements of your onboarding program are working well and which need to be tweaked. So, over time, you can get it down to a science.

Offer Ongoing Reinforcement

In an ideal world, you would give new SaaS reps initial training, and they’d be off to the races never needing a second of further instruction. But it just doesn’t work that way. 

“Research shows that most new reps get overwhelmed with information in the first 30 days, and they can forget as much as 80% of sales boot camp training if they do not receive ongoing reinforcement.” That’s why it’s critical to provide ongoing reinforcement until a new salesperson is firmly rooted and firing on all cylinders. 

Fortunately, most sales onboarding software offers continuous learning where salespeople receive consistent updates and assessments to ensure they retain the information and keep evolving. MindTickle is a good example and places a heavy emphasis on reinforced sales skills so the knowledge reps gain sticks. 

Also, note that some platforms feature additional learning, such as micro courses and certifications that are designed to take salespeople from being good to great. So, when you have a new rep that quickly works their way up the ranks and shows a lot of promise, you can help them elevate their skill set even more through this type of training. 

I’ve featured a handful of different sales onboarding software in this post, but for a full rundown, comparison, and information on pricing, I suggest reading this resource from G2. 

Reducing Your Ramp Time By as Much as Half

There’s no denying how vital proper onboarding is to the success of new SaaS sales reps. Research has found that it significantly increases win rate, boosts quota achievement, creates higher employee engagement, and lowers turnover. The problem, however, is that many SaaS companies are inefficient at the process.

But this is something that can easily be remedied through sales onboarding software. In fact, brands that use it are able to accelerate new SaaS salesperson ramp time by 20-50% on average. That combined with ongoing reinforcement is incredibly potent and can help you get the absolute most from your sales team. 

Speaking of sales teams, are you looking to hire top-tier sales talent, faster? See how HireDNA can help you find the best of the best in your industry using intelligent matching and science-based assessments.

98% of Top SaaS Companies Use Recruiting Software: Why You Should Too

Posted on by hiredna

If you’ve ever done SaaS sales recruiting, you know how challenging it can be. Finding reps with the right knowledge, skillset, and sales DNA is difficult. And retaining them long-term can be even trickier.  

So, rather than relying on old school tactics and “a hunch,” smart companies are turning to technology to streamline the process and find elite sales talent. They’re turning to recruiting software. 

Here’s why you should too. 

Some Telling Stats

One statistic I found extremely interesting is that “over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use recruitment software.”

Not a third. Not half. Not even 75%. But nearly all Fortune 500 companies now use this technology to find elite salespeople. These brands clearly know what they’re doing, and considering that such a ridiculously high percentage use recruiting software, there’s obviously something to it. 

And when it comes to results, they’re undeniable. “94% of recruiters and hiring professionals say that using a recruitment software has positively impacted their hiring process,” and “68% say the best way to improve recruiting performance over the next five years is by investing in new recruiting technology.”

This graphic from business consulting firm, Grand View Research, adds even more perspective on where recruiting software is heading as we move deeper in the 2020s. Just look at where the market size was in 2016 and where it’s projected to be at by 2027 (light blue marks recruiting software market size). 

Why Recruiting Software is a Game Changer for SaaS Companies

Now, let’s look at some of the biggest reasons why this technology is something you want to implement and specific platforms to consider. 

Quickly Generate Top-Level Candidates

Generating SaaS sales candidates isn’t necessarily difficult. Pretty much any brand can slap a posting up on a job board and get a flood of candidates. But generating bonafide SaaS sales rockstars certainly is. 

At the end of the day, there’s only so many quality standards you can have in place when using conventional recruiting tactics. Using recruiting software, however, allows you to quickly generate top-level candidates that are often head and shoulders above others. 

How? 

A platform like HireDNA:

  • Taps into a verified national network of sales recruitment experts
  • Uses intelligent matching to analyze 20 key data points to find individuals that best fit the role and match your criteria
  • Uses science-based assessments involving 21 core selling competencies, such as the will to sell, coachability, and the ability to handle rejection

Recruitment software essentially has built-in quality assurance, which provides you with a top-tier candidate pool right off the bat. 

Evaluate Sales Candidates Objectively

In the past, the only things recruiters had to evaluate sales talent on were a resume, cover letter, references, and flat out intuition. While these things can certainly give you a base level reading of a candidate, they don’t always tell the whole story. 

And critical hiring decisions often ended up falling into the trap of subjectivity, which can be detrimental for obvious reasons. 

But recruiting software provides you with quantifiable data, allowing you to evaluate candidates with full objectivity and transparency using visuals like these. 

With just a glance, you can get a full overview of a candidate’s capabilities and compare them to others without your emotion getting in the way. This brings us to our next point. 

Make Better Hiring Decisions 

Just like in nearly every other aspect of business, the more data you have, the better your decision-making becomes. It’s really that simple. 

According to The Harvard Business School, “highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who rely less on data.” This is why you see so many companies who use recruiting software reaching the Fortune 500. 

By leveraging concrete data, this knocks down the first domino, helping them hire next level reps, which in turn, helps their salesforce be more productive, create a better customer experience, increase loyalty, generate more revenue, and so on. It’s a virtuous cycle. 

When it comes to SaaS companies that hire based on candidate recommendations from HireDNA, 92% of the suggested candidates reach the top of the sales team within their first year. 

Fill Positions Quicker

Time to hire is another major concern for SaaS companies. On average, it takes about a month to fill a vacant position in this industry. And the time and energy you spend sifting through sales candidates distracts you from core business tasks. 

But with recruiting software, you can reduce your time to hire significantly. Companies that use HireDNA, for instance, are able to slash their hiring time in half, quickly gaining access to pre-screened, qualified candidates that are ready to be interviewed. 

Drastically Reduce Hiring Mistakes

Because recruiting software gives you objective data and access to such a high-level candidate pool, you’ll naturally make fewer hiring mistakes. To quantify, HireDNA eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes, which gives companies the best possible chance of finding the right talent without needless drama.  

Increase Salesperson Retention 

Finally, there’s a definite correlation between using recruiting software and minimizing turnover. SaaS companies that use HireDNA are able to, on average, lower turnover by more than 33%, greatly increasing the odds of keeping top talent around for the long haul. 

Leveraging This Potent Technology

Software recruiting has never been easy. But modern SaaS companies have access to amazing technology in the form of recruiting software. It’s evolved substantially over the past few years, and given that 98% of top Fortune 500 companies use recruiting software, there’s no denying the impact it can have. It’s just a matter of choosing the right platform that meets the unique needs of your business. 


To learn more about this potent technology and see HireDNA in action, request a free demo today.

Boost Your Sales Candidate Application Rate By 34% with This Simple Tactic

Posted on by hiredna

Recruiting talented salespeople has been and continues to be a struggle for many of today’s businesses, especially smaller ones. In fact, nearly two-thirds (64.2%) of small businesses reported having difficulty attracting qualified talent in 2019 — a trend most experts predict will continue in the 2020s. 

Fortunately, there’s a tactic — a hack, if you will — that can boost your sales candidate application rate by a staggering 34%. And it’s incredibly simple. 

Use video. 

A Potential Game Changer

Video has already proven to be huge for marketing. 89% of companies that use video say it’s increased traffic to their site, and 83% say it’s aided in their lead generation. And it’s easy to see why, considering “66% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product.”

To provide a bit more perspective on the popularity of video, just look at how big YouTube has become. It went from having 1.35 billion users in 2016 (a respectable number) to 1.86 billion in 2021. 

Besides just being useful for marketing, video can be a potential game changer for recruiting as well. Rather than sticking with the same old technique of creating an entirely text-based job ad, brands can benefit greatly from incorporating a video. 

In fact, “the candidate application rate goes up by 34% when a job post includes a video,” explains Ivana Vojinovic of SmallBizGenius. 

So, if you’re looking to maximize the number of qualified sales candidates you receive when posting a job ad, including a video is a great way to do it. 

Why Sales Candidate Are So Receptive to Video

There are three main reasons why video is such an amazing aid for sales recruiting.

  1. Video is a Natural Attention Grabber

Just put yourself in the shoes of a sales candidate. You’re browsing through a variety of job ads with most containing the usual information — a job description, required skills, day-to-day tasks, and so on. They all sort of blend together, but nothing stands out in particular.

Then, you come across a job ad with a video featuring actual company leaders and team members explaining the ins and outs of the position. You get a feel for their personalities and a sense for what the overall company culture is like. In short, the job ad brings the position to life and allows you to engage in a way that simply isn’t possible using only text. 

In turn, your interest level would likely rise, and you’d feel much more compelled to apply with that company.

  1. Video Increases Sales Candidate Engagement

A study by job description software company Ongig found that, on average, candidates spent 55 seconds viewing a traditional text job ad. But when candidates looked at a job ad with a video (even without actually viewing it), they spent 2 minutes and 54 seconds on the ad. And when they watched the video, that number spiked all the way to 5 minutes and 23 seconds — a 487% engagement increase! 

Video Job Descriptions Get 487% Pop Over Text Job Descriptions

The numbers speak for themselves, and this massive increase in engagement ultimately leads to more qualified sales candidates applying, which quickly beefs up the size of your candidate pool. 

  1. Video Gives Sales Candidates a Full Rundown

Finally, video is the perfect medium for conveying a lot of information into just a few minutes. If you’re only using text, it may take several paragraphs to cover everything you need, and it can be arduous for candidates to read. But with video, you can pack everything you need into an easily digestible format.

“In a job ad video, include footage of the office, workspace, how employees interact and events that happen at the organization, says career and workplace expert Heather R. Huhman in Entrepreneur. “Such footage will help prospective candidates determine if the employer provides an environment that matches their work style.” 

Not only should it help you bring in more candidates, it should also improve the overall quality because it naturally filters out those that aren’t a great fit culturally. 

How Long Should a Video Be?

One of the biggest questions companies have is how long they should make a video for a sales candidate job ad. While every situation is different, Huhman points out that the average length of videos is around 4 minutes and 20 seconds. This tends to be the sweet spot where you can get your message across without overwhelming sales candidates with extraneous details. 

Or as Huhman puts it, “when creating a video job ad, make it long enough to explain the most important information, yet short enough so the job seeker won’t lose interest.”

A Real-Life Example

Finally, let me leave you with a real-life example of a sales candidate video job ad. It’s from display advertising company ReTargeter, and it’s for an inside sales representative. 

This should hopefully provide you with some ideas and inspiration to get you started. 

Maximizing Your Sales Candidate Pool with Video

A big part of effectively recruiting quality sales candidates is simply grabbing their attention and getting them to engage with your job ad. But with all of the competition out there, this is often easier said than done. That’s why it’s important to be creative and create job ads that truly stand out. 

Incorporating video is hands down one of the best ways to accomplish this, and it can boost your sales candidate application rate by as much as 34%. So, this is definitely a medium worth experimenting with when attempting to fill your next sales position. 

And if you’re looking for a cutting-edge tool to hire better sales talent faster, check out HireDNA. It uses intelligent matching and science-based assessments to find the best of the best salespeople using data, and 92% of those recommended through HireDNA climb to the top of their sales team within their first year. 

The Latest Innovations in Technology That Can Empower HR Teams

Posted on by hiredna

Driven largely by the need for better recruiting and to help salespeople and sales leaders realize their full potential, HR technology has grown by leaps in bounds in recent years. In 2019, it was a $148 billion market. And with 74% of companies increasing their spending on HR tech in 2020, that market is quickly accelerating.

The HR Technology Conference & Exposition, which took place on October 20, 2020 featured the latest innovations in technology, including “AI and machine learning, chatbots and blockchain, digital transformation, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and more.” 

Here are some of the most game changing new products that can empower HR teams moving forward. 

Bryq Bias-Free Pre-Hire Assessment

Bryq utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to “blindly screen for skills and personality, not resumes.” It’s designed to mitigate bias and provide companies with an objective means of assessing salespeople. In turn, this greatly reduces the chance of recruiters falling victim to common hiring biases such as the halo effect, expectation anchor, and affinity bias. 

One of the more noteworthy features is Bryq’s Profile Prediction, which analyzes a job description and comes up with the ideal combination of concrete skills and personality traits.

It then ranks candidates according to how well they stack up based on the assessment and how good of a fit they are for the position, while taking hard skills and personality factors into account. 

This platform is built on powerful input/output psychology data that not only helps HR teams pinpoint exactly who they’re looking for but adds a level of unparalleled objectivity that has eluded recruiters so far. Bryq takes factors that could skew hiring decisions such as gender, race, and ethnicity out of the mix, which is huge for increasing workplace diversity and finding top tier salespeople. 

And the results are undeniable. Companies that have used Bryq collectively reduced their time-to-hire by 54% and lowered turnover by 62%. 

If unconscious bias keeps getting in the way of your hiring, Bryq could be just the solution you’ve been looking for. 

Explorance Employee Journey Analytics

Roughly a third of salespeople fail to meet expectations and don’t reach their quota at least part of the time. It’s an ongoing struggle not only for salespeople themselves but also for the HR teams and sales leaders that are responsible for managing them. 

But Explorance, a company that offers sophisticated “employee journey analytics,” could have an answer to this problem. They offer a new type of machine learning called Blue, which allows companies to gather feedback across a multitude of different surveys, including the following:

It then takes that information and synthesizes it to provide a 360 degree view of what’s going on. That way HR teams “can start understanding employee sentiments, improving performances, and identifying patterns across different stages of the employee journey.”

Explorance automates the feedback gathering process and uses a comprehensive reporting engine to provide HR with actionable guidance on what they can do to help salespeople maximize their potential — from the moment they’re hired to when they retire. 

This makes it a promising end-to-end salesperson development tool that could have a huge impact on long-term company culture. 

ePerkz Offboarding Tool

HR teams spend a ton of time and money on onboarding and give it a massive amount of attention. However, they don’t always do the same for inevitable offboarding whenever salespeople leave the company. 

ePerkz is a newly developed platform that’s specifically designed to streamline severance and offboarding while ensuring compliance every step of the way. It offers a robust Employee Transition Hub with the following features:

By using it, companies can automate end-to-end calculations, agreements, and workflows to reduce the offboarding processing time by an average of 50%. ePerkz also features powerful compliance tools to prevent litigation due to unlawful termination. 

So, when it’s all said and done, HR teams can offboard salespeople with minimal friction, while at the same time providing a better employee experience. 

Optify Leadership Coaching Management System 

Finally, there’s Optify which provides “scalable leadership coaching that supports organizational growth and impact, one person at a time.” At the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, they announced the launch of their Leadership Coaching Management System (LCMS) that’s built to provide companies with scalable coaching programs with one on one coaching to help sales leaders elevate their skillset and maximize their potential. 

The process is highly individualized and matches sales leaders with handpicked coaches to reach concrete goals.

Users complete assessments to determine what their current capabilities are and what specific goals they’re looking to accomplish. They then work with coaches to successfully reach those goals, using proven training to accelerate results. 

It’s all about tangible, measurable growth, which Optify ensures by incorporating robust analytics to keep track of progress and identify additional areas for improvement. 

So, if sales leadership development is one of your top priorities, Optify is definitely a platform to consider. 

Taking HR to a New Level Through Tech

Although HR has historically been slow moving in terms of tech adoption, there now appears to be a more open mindset with many companies taking strong initiatives to leverage new technology. And as we’ve just learned with the products mentioned above, there are some exciting advancements that can help HR teams flourish. 

For a full rundown on the products featured at the the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, check out this press release from Global Newswire. 

And speaking of innovative platforms. If you’re looking for a science-based software that offers an all-in-one solution to recruiting, screening, hiring, and retaining top level salespeople, check out HireDNA. 

It eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes and reduces turnover by more than 33%. And 92% of candidates that are recommended through it are top performers within their first year.